Alma sophomore Judah Dean reached on an error to start the fifth and scored on Alex Burris’ third double of the day as Alma rallied to beat the Hillbillies, 10-5, in nonconference play.

McAnally, who is one of Coleman’s two standard junior varsity pitchers, pitched around Burris’ leadoff double in the third and set Alma down without any noise in the fourth. But the right-hander didn’t survive the inning.

“That’s his first varsity start; he stepped up and he kept us in the game the whole time,” Coleman said. “Against a 5A team, to pitch that well, I was proud of him.”

Alma coach Kevin Edwards is hoping Saturday’s victory — coupled with Friday’s 5A-West doubleheader sweep at Huntsville — could be the start of something big. The Airedales resume league play Friday at Vilonia.

“We still have a shot at the district title, but it’s going to take us getting on a winning streak and playing well,” Edwards said. “The kid at Ozark was hitting his spots and changing speeds and we were popping everything up, and finally we started laying back and got some big hits that got us going.”

Sophomore Dylan Brown, who had two more hits to add to his monster break-out season, tripled home the go-ahead runs and Josh Parks added a two-run single as part of Alma’s break-through inning, turning a 3-2 deficit into an 8-3 lead.

“We’re just trying to focus on every aspect of the game,” Burris said. “We have to get better to get to where we need to be. We’ve shown spurts of the team we can be. We’ve won the last few games, and we just need to keep rolling.”

Adam Wilbanks, who drove in three runs, capped the fifth with an RBI single. That was plenty for Alma senior Brett Farris.

The right-handed Farris struck out four and scattered five hits before giving way to Dean. Dean struck out three and secured the final out of the game when sophomore right fielder Cameron Ogilvie ran down Jayden McClellan’s deep drive in right center.

Farris and Wilbanks had RBI singles in the second for the Airedales.

But Ozark’s Colton McChristian, who had been mired in a recent tailspin, snapped an 0-for-16 hitless streak by lining an 0-2 pitch to right center for a two-run single.

Sam Kinney doubled and scored on Cole Yell’s two-out RBI single in the Hillbillies’ fourth.

But Alma scored six runs in the next inning, and the Airedales added to the lead in the seventh.

Farris singled home pinch-runner Logan Been to make it 9-4, and Wilbanks singled home pinch-runner Drake Pendergraft for the final run.